


The Half Ghost Prince

by Browa123



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Raised by ghosts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-09-23 00:30:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20331061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browa123/pseuds/Browa123
Summary: With Vlad staying with Jack and Maddie after being released from the hospital, something goes terribly wrong with their second attempt at building a ghost portal...





	1. Lost

The babbling three year old sits in Vlad's lap as young Jazz moves about to pick a bedtime story.

Vlad couldn't be more thankful to the parents of the children. Jack and Maddie being with him in the hospital meant wonders, even if it took a few years to get him off the quarantine list. His condition was still rare after all, and his best friends helping him through it was so much more than he could ask for.

He was upset at first, yes. Very, very upset. He felt like strangling Jack the moment he walked through the doors into his hospital room. But Jack had apologised profusely, hugging Vlad until the nurses had to pull the big lug off him.

"You can stay at our place until you recover! I'll do anything to make it up to you, Vladdie."

So he stayed with Jack. It was a sorely needed stay, he soon learned. His bottled up rage and anger paired with the ghost core, the wrong, impossible ball of ectoplasmic energy in his chest he shouldn't have, was tearing who he was to shreds.

He'd nearly lost himself to his own anger. The bubbly excitement of the new location in Amity Park was a needed change. Rather than staying in isolation, consumed by his own anger and lust, he has a hold on his life again. And the ghost powers that he's aquired? They certainly are useful now that he isn't dwelling on how he got them.

"Let's read this story, uncle Vladdie!" Jazz pipes up. The redheaded girl was with her mother when he first got here, and it was clear she was expecting a second back then. The three year old in his arms right now.

Danny gazes up with wide, blue eyes as Jazz hands him the book. Jack and Maddie are working on a new ghost portal in the basement, and due to the accident eight years ago, they asked Vlad to watch the kids to make sure nothing bad happens this time around.

Needless to say, the lone Halfa was more than happy to oblige. The next time he sees a ghost portal, it had better be when he's a full spectral being and not... whatever he is right now. Not even Jack or Maddie understand it.

"What story do you have for me today, Jasmine?" Vlad hums, taking Danny and putting the three year old in the crib. The raven haired toddler bounces up and down, gripping the bars.

"It's called The Prince and the.... pau- peeer," Jazz sounds out, looking at the word with confusion.

Vlad chuckles. "It's Pauper, dear. A pauper is a word for a very poor person," explains the Halfa. Jazz nods along, attempting to imitate what Vlad had said as he takes the picture book.

"Now, once you're all snuggled into bed, I'll read you this book as a bedtime story," Vlad hums as Jazz quickly dives onto her mattress, pulling the covers over her shoulders. Danny chuckles from his crib, rocking the bars.

"And don't think I'm not watching you. You're a little escape artist, you know that?" Danny chuckles at Vlad's mocking of a stern tone as he bounces. Vlad helps the toddler lie down for bed, helping the small boy relax a bit.

"There we go. Now, on to the story. Once upon a time..."

It didn't take long for the kids to drift off after that. Even Vlad finds himself growing tired. With the kids in bed, it shouldn't be a problem for him to nod off. Surely, Jack and Maddie will be finished with the portal soon. Nothing bad should happen in that time.

So when he's awakened by a crash and Maddie screaming, he's quick to get on his feet. His back is sore from sleeping in a chair, but that hardly matters. There's a problem in the basement lab.

Jazz is sitting up too, looking rather panicked. "What was that?" She squeaks.

"I'm sure it's nothing your parents and I can't handle. You and your brother can just go back to bed," Vlad tells Jazz. She looks around him and tilts her head.

"Danny isn't in his bed, Uncle Vladdie."

Oh no.

Quick as a flash, Vlad rushes down the stairs, finding the door to the lab open. A rock seems to sink in his gut as he stumbles down the steps to find Jack standing stock still, unmoving. 

Maddie isn't far from Jack. She's in her knees, staring with wide eyes into the swirling, green depths of the new formed portal. Neither move an inch as the whirring if the new ectofiltrator and the hum of the interdimentional door fills the lab.

"He was inside..." Maddie whispers. "He crawled inside while our backs were turned... or something, but he was _inside...."_

Vlad's eyes widen. "He might be on the other side of the portal. I... I might be able to find him. I'm sorry." The Halfa felt nothing but guilt. This was his fault. He left Danny unattended.

"Please, I have to try. I'm sorry, I should have kept a closer eye..." He stutters, but the looks on the faces of Danny's parents silence him.

"It's worth a shot, V-man. Just please find him, no matter what happened. Bring him back before we loose him forever," Jack pleads, still not having moved.

The room is silent as the rings of shadow take hold of Vlad's body. Slowly, he wills himself to become a ghost. Every molecule of his body changing and shifting as he grows colder.

"It's worth a shot," Vlad agrees. Staring into the green abyss, remembering the flashes as they seared his skin years ago... But there's no time to waste. With a steading breath, Vlad leaps into the portal, the emerald glow encasing his body.

The swirls soon gain structure. Doors and stairs and window frames under a green sky and encased in a powerful energy Vlad can just feel. It seeps into his core, rushing and empowering his very being as he tumbles through the vast space.

A human wouldn't be able to survive this much ectoplasmic radiation for long. So if Danny is here, he has to hurry before the ectoplasm in the air suffocates him, or worse.

"Daniel? Daniel! Where are you? Uncle Vladdie needs you!" he calls. But the empty abyss only stares back at him. No sign of a human toddler anywhere.

A few ectoplasmic blobs pass him, screaming and wailing. Vlad backs away as the masses continue to aimlessly drift through the horizon. With what little they know about ghosts, the atmosphere isn't the only danger to young Daniel around here.

Vlad searches, trying to find any sign, any hint of Jack and Maddie's son. A terrifying roar catches his attention, Vlad turning around to see a massive behemoth. The four armed beast snarles and growls, only for the faint sound of chuckling to follow it.

"Daniel?!"

Sure enough, the boy is behind the beast, messing with some kind of key. He sticks it in his mouth and chews on it, looking as human and alive as ever.

"Thank goodness you're ok. Come along young man, time to get you home..." Vlad tries. He attempts to approach his nephew, only for the behemoth to block his way, growling.

Danny pokes at the beast's tail, giggling as it sways up and down. He still has the key on his mouth as the angered beast flicks the child away with the sharp snap of its tail end.

"Daniel!" Vlad cries, making hot pursuit of the fast flying child. Danny giggles as be soars through the air, oblivious to the danger.

The two soar toward an outcrop of intimidating looking rocks, Danny chuckling the whole way as he flies toward the imposing structure. Afraid of loosing him for good, Vlad abandons his own sense of impending danger to chase the child inside.

A loud clang is heard as Danny knocks face first into what appears to be a glowing pumpkin. The glowing sword embedded in the plant topples to the ground as Vlad quickly flies after his nephew.

And, so close to Danny, Vlad's path becomes blocked by an awakening army of spectral skeletons. The ghosts begin to attack him mercilessly, the Halfa caught fighting his way though a hoard to get to Danny, who continues the teethe at the skull shaped key.

The sharp whinny of a horse then echoes in the halls of dark building, the sword previously embedded on the pumpkin rising into the air above the skeletons. A figure appears, riding on the back of a winged horse as the sword is held in the air.

"The Fright Knight lives again!" Declares the figure, a possessed suit of armor it seems, sword in the air as the ghostly horse huffs a breath of the ecto contaminated air, bat-like wings against his flank.

"Daniel! Get over here!" Vlad cries at the toddler again. The skeletons continue to swarm him, Vlad sending hot blasts of plasmatic fire to get through the crowd.

"No," Danny replies flatly. He then bursts into chuckles once again, still completely unphased by the situation. He fiddles with the key again, playing with the object like a stick.

Fright Knight looks between the two. "The skeleton key..."

Danny looks between the key and the ghost. He hugs it to his chest.

"Hand over the key, child." Fright Knight holds out his free hand, determined to take the object from the human.

"Mine." Danny states, sticking his tongue out at the ghostly knight and horse.

"Hand it over, now!" Enraged, Fright Knight lunges at Danny, who phases through the attack. Vlad thinks his eyes are tricking him due to the swarm of skeletons blocking his path.

"Mine!" Danny yells, eyes flaring green as he backs away from the knight, toward the sarcophagus at the back of the room. "Mine, mine, mine!"

"Give me the key!" Fright Knight booms raising his sword in the air. He begins to bring it down on the toddler, but not before Vlad manages to blast the weapon out of the ghost's hand. It clatters to the floor, giving Danny enough time to move away.

The toddler looks up, seeing the keyhole at the center of the sarcophagus. He looks between it and the object he's holding. "This go there..."

To reach the keyhole, Danny morphs. Bright rings of blue travel along his body as he starts to levitate, chuckling like crazy as the powers lift him in the air, like he wants to be.

"A Halfa!?" Fright Knight is taken aback, as is Vlad as he watches the display from across the room. Danny continues to grin and chuckle as he floats, now with white hair, green eyes and a tail. Not even Vlad has a tail!

"Key goes in the hole~" Danny sings as he places the skeleton key in the sarcophagus. Fright Knight's eyes widen with terror as the boy begins to turn it.

"No! Stop, you foolish Halfa! You'll wake him!" Fright Knight lunges again, panicked and desprate to stop the child from unlocking the sarcophagus.

"Open Sesame!" Danny declares, watching the lid of the sarcophagus slowly open. The skeletons around Vlad seem to freeze as the creaking coffin reveals another figure inside.

The imposing presence looms over the area as the ghost steps out of the sarcophagus. Fright Knight falls to his knees. The skeletons fall too, all bowing before this new specter.

"Who dares?!" The figure booms, the singular eye of the ghost scanning the room, his other covered by an eye patch. His gaze falls on Danny, who's still holding the key. Even he's gone silent in the presence of the new arrival.

"So, this child is the one that has woken me from my forever sleep, and freed me from my sarcophagus..." The figure looks Danny up and down, as wide green eyes stare into his singular one.

Vlad tries to push his way through the crowd. "Yes, uh... poor Daniel here has been quite the adventurous little tyke today. It's time for him to come back home so he doesn't wake anyone else up."

The imposing ghost glares at the older Halfa. "Take this fool out of my sight. The child is mine to deal with."

"Yes, King Pariah. He shall leave at once," Fright Knight complies. The skeletons stand and begin swarming Vlad again, relentlessly dragging him further and further from Danny. Pariah lifts the child in the air while Vlad is thrown out.

As he sails back toward the Fenton Portal, weak and powerless, he hears Danny begin to cry and scream. It's then that he knows he failed, and Danny is never coming home.


	2. Taken

Pariah looks to the two year old in his hand, the fragile creature beginning to cry.

"Rise, minion. I demand an explanation for why such a youngling was the one to release me. And please, stop it from making that infernal noise..." groans the ghostly king, tossing the child to the knight.

Fright Knight catches the thing, unsure with what to do with such a creature. He saw what it had done himself. It morphed, from living to dead. Something he had not seen since he was first captured in that pumpkin. He was under the impression creatures like this had all been destroyed, on his king's orders.

"Yes. You see, your Magesty... this child has gone about the swift release of both of us. Perhaps there is some use to keeping it around if it continues to prove it's loyalty...." He looks unsure at the sniffling Halfa in his arms.

Danny notes he still has the key, and playing with it again quells his crying as the Fright Knight holds him properly. He giggles with the childish glee he had exhibited earlier, happily swinging the key around and watching the glow follow it.

"You seem unsure. Is there something about this child that troubles you?" Pariah interrupts. He eyes the ghost up and down.

"You see, My Lord, this child is not an ordinary ghost. He was a human when he released me, and he morphed into the form you see now..." Fright Knight explains. The boy in his arms hugs the key to his chest, yawning.

Both watch as the rings of light appear once again, the boy turning into a human as he falls to sleep. Pariah has an unreadable expression on his face as he takes in what he's just witnessed. But soon, the expression breaks into a malicious grin.

"What should we do with this Halfa, your Magesty? Shall I destroy it before it has time to grow more powerful?" Fright Knight again looks to the boy. "It would be easy, now that he is in his weaker form."

"Stay your hand, my subject. We do not need to kill this child," Pariah orders, even to his own surprise. The boy shifts in his now deeper slumber.

"This is a sign that has been brought before us. Halfas are making a reemergence, no matter how slightly. If left unprepared, a new army of these hybrids could storm us with their power and easily overtake our armies," Pariah continues, again grinning and looking to the sleeping boy.

"Now I ask you, my minion, what if we could harness the power of a Halfa for ourselves? To have one with undying loyalty to us as it's authority. To have its unyielding strength as it fights on the side of its guardians?"

"So, you wish to keep the child? Raise it as our own, in order to secure the advantage?" Fright Knight holds the sleeping boy more gently now. If left to grow, it would become very powerful.

"Indeed. I shall personally see to the care of this child. He will become my heir, and with his strength as a ghost hybrid, he will rule alongside me to avoid his rebellion against me for power. Therefore I must raise him to be a proper ruler," Pariah commands.

The ghostly king then takes the boy back from the Fright Knight, assessing him. "Such a fragile thing. But I'm sure that through vigorous training, he will grow strong. Any who oppose us will tremble before the might of this Halfa, and the might of their ruler..."

Fright Knight kneels before his leader, the army of skeletal specter's bowing their heads in worship of the King. Pariah holds the Halfa child close as the boy curls up in his hands. Already he could feel the raw potential the creature had.

"Fetch me my crown and my ring. The time has come to remind this world who rules it," Pariah declares. He takes the key from the hands of the boy gently, passing the object to the Fright Knight.

The spirit stands, taking the key to the holding place if the Ring of Rage. The small object falls into his hand as he returns it to Pariah. The ghostly king takes the object, grinning before passing it to the child to hold.

He has little need for the Ring when he has the power of the Crown of Fire. It, and his army, would be enough to take back what was his. The ring would be the symbol of his heir, the Halfa he still holds.

The warm form cooes as he clutches the Ring. Pariah smiles wider at the toddler, taking in the creature and his new formed core. This new life and afterlife... the symbol of a new era, and his return.

"Ready your troops. We shall attack and take back what is rightfully ours when the sky turns it's brightest," Pariah commands. The skeletons rise to their feet, preparing their weapons.

Fight Knight gives one last bow, mounting his Night Mare and raising the Soul Shredder in the air.

"By the next dark sky, this realm will be mine once more..." Pariah chuckles, lightly brushing the raven hair of the new prince.

In the meanwhile, Vlad is still soaring through the murky mist of the ghost zone's impossible atmosphere. The screaming cries of young Daniel had stopped a while ago, leaving him to assume the worse had happened. The boy must be dead.

What was he going to tell Jack and Maddie? It was he himself who lost their son twice now, due to unprepared foolishness. A deep ache fills his chest as he can't bear to think how much the boy suffered, the grief his parents will be forced to endure.

He returns to the portal. Steeping through, his shoulders slumped and his hair in a ruffled mess from the encounter with the skeletons. His white hazmat is torn and his skin is scarred, and his eyes are wide with sorrow and shame.

Jack rushes over to support his faltering form, gripping the Halfa as he's forced back to his human self. He leans into the mass of orange, his legs unable to support him any longer.

"I'm sorry... I couldn't save him... I'm sorry..." Vlad mutters, his words broken and weak. Jack leans the head of his friend against his shoulder. They both fall to the ground, Maddie moving to join them with tears in her eyes.

Jazz peeks into the lab at the top of the stairs, holding a blanket and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She looks to the three adults huddled on the ground, and the swirls of green ectoplasm illuminating the lab. The scene looked eerie and sad to the young girl.

"Mom? Dad? Uncle Vladdie?" She stumbles slightly heading down the stairs to see what the problem is. Maddie looks up, eyes red and puffy from her sobs while Jack and Vlad refuse to even move an inch.

"Mom? Where's Danny? He got out of bed while me and Uncle Vladdie were sleeping to find you guys..." Jazz tilts her head. Her brother is nowhere in sight.

"Oh Jasmine... my baby girl..." Maddie whimpers. She becons her daughter over to her. Jazz obliges to the hug, taking her mother's embrace.

"Where's Danny?" Jazz asks again. The mourning mother holds her daughter tighter, not wanting to ever let go of the girl in her arms. Not after loosing her son. Not wanting to loose anyone else.

"Jazz... your brother... he's... He got lost. And he's not coming back..." Jack says from behind the two, gripping Vlad just as tightly, using him as an anchor for his greif.

"Oh Jack... you think we would have learned!" Maddie wails suddenly. Hot tears roll down her face. "After what happened with Vlad! You'd think we would have learned not to do this again..."

Jazz seems to sniffle now. She grips her mother and her blanket. "Why is he lost? Why isn't Danny coming home?"

"Oh sweetheart... where your brother is... there's no coming home..." Maddie sniffles. Her eyes dart toward the portal. "Your Uncle Vladdie searched and searched, but he couldn't find Danny..."

"I don't think I can sleep tonight mom..." Jazz mumbles into her Hazmat. Maddie strokes her daughter's hair, running the strands through her fingers.

"I don't think anybody is going to sleep tonight dear. Let's... go back upstairs. I'll make everyone some tea..." Maddie sighs. She stands, herself and Jazz still clinging to each other as they head for the stairs. Jack and Vlad follow in a similar manner.

"I'm sorry... I'm so very sorry. This is my fault, I shouldn't have taken my eyes off him..." Vlad continues to mutter. Jack keeps a strong arm around his best friend.

"It's all our fault, V-Man. No need to shoulder the burden," Jack Let's out a steering breath, trying to stay strong. "We all should have been more careful. Maddie and I should have learned after what happened to you. It should have taught us a lesson..."

"What happened to me is unrelated, Jack. But the point stands that I should have been able to use the powers I've gained to save Daniel... I failed you in that regard," murmers the Halfa, wiping his sleeve across his eyes.

"We've all failed Danny tonight," Maddie sighs. "If his young soul comes back to haunt us, I don't even bother trying to stop it."

"I'd take Danno being a ghost rather than gone forever," Jack agrees as Vlad goes stiff. Not wanting to mention that he'd lost even the ghost of their son, he elects not to contribute to the topic. He's hurt them enough for one night.

Jazz drags her blanket behind her, still attached to her mother's leg. She may be young, but she know what the talk of Danny becoming a ghost actually means for her lost brother. So that's why they said that he isn't coming back.

Maddie takes the tea pot, putting it on the stove. Her movements are hollow and empty as the other two adults ease themselves into their chairs. They hadn't even bothered turning on the lights.

Despite the late hours, not a soul was tired in the wake of such an unfortunate tragedy. The tea is brewed and passed out, but it's barely touched by those present, going cold with the passage of empty hours. A silent vigil for the lost boy.

The numb silence suddenly breaks as the sun begins to rise. A loud, blaring alarm snaps everyone out of their dazed state. Jack jumps and lands with a thump, running over to the source of the loud noise.

He stares up at a screen showing a radar, that beeps loudly and repeatedly with no sign of stopping. The rest of the adults stare up in terror of the oncoming threat.

"Dad? What s all the noise?" Jazz asks, her head tilting as she watches the screen.

"Galloping goblins.... It's the Ecto Exodus Alarm."


End file.
